I-Team: VA Continued Paying Construction Company Fraud After Conviction

CHELSMFORD (CBS) — A Chelmsford company convicted of posing as a veteran owned business in order to obtain more than $100 million in government contracts continued to receive money from the Department of Veterans Affairs after it was indicted and convicted, the I-Team has learned.

In 2012, David Gorski, the vice president of Legion Construction, was indicted for Conspiracy to Defraud the United States.

Investigators said Gorski asked two different disabled veterans to pose as owners of the company all while he operated it.

Between 2005 and 2010, investigators found that Gorski and his co-conspirators fraudulently obtained roughly $113 million in government construction contracts.

Even after the indictment, Legion Construction continued to be awarded money from its existing government contracts. The I-Team learned the company obtained more than $5 million post indictment and more than $100,000 after his conviction, according to USASpending.gov.

“The government just wrote him a check for 163 thousand dollars as a convicted felon,” disabled veteran and construction company owner, Douglas Fleming said.

Thomas McGrath, the VA administrator in charge of verifying veteran-owned businesses said he could not explain how Gorski’s scheme slipped through the cracks for years.

“If they submit something that is false then it’s false. And, we do our best to check and follow-up when we can with site visits but we only have so much capabilities to run that stuff down,” McGrath said.

The VA also released a statement saying that even a company under criminal investigation may continue to receive money from its contracts unless,”the agency head directs otherwise.”

The VA said its contracting office decided to complete Legion’s open contracts, “to avoid delay to Veteran Care.”